Tuesday, June 19, 2007

just a little more New York...

I finally unloaded my camera with the handful of photos from the last few weeks. I've been so lazy about using the silly thing!

The one Sunday I had free in NYC, I walked up Broadway from pretty close to the bottom of Manhattan, and ran across this place. Too bad it wasn't open... it made me think of Bonnie from Quiltville! This building caught my eye -- what on Earth is that blue circle supposed to mean? A landing pad for giant houseflies? And then it started to rain. I had been watching the weather reports for days (thunderstorms, more thunderstorms) but it didn't occur to me to bring an umbrella. So I ducked into a little news/tobacco store and bought one for $4.99... it lasted me about 4 blocks before all the little metal spokes became a tangled mess. R.I.P. umbrella. It was really ugly, too -- some kind of purple snow scene on it. For a long time I've had it in mind to do a series of photographs of dead umbrellas. Since San Francisco gets very windy, there are plenty around here in the winter. However, I never seem to have a camera with me when the umbrellas are out, and I'm not sure I want to be out in the rain with a camera anyway -- the project is still just incubating in my brain. One little bit of quilty progress to show -- this is my second Baby Bargello, and the very first thing I quilted on the Handiquilter. Good thing you can't see the quilting too closely, and good thing babies probably don't notice that kind of detail! I'm going to save it for 40-quilt charity project later in the year. The pattern comes from Quiltville, of course!

One thing I love about Austria is that soooo very many people ride bicycles - and when it rains there is a parade of people biking - one handed - as the other hand is holding is very big, black umbrella! I've never had my camera with me for that shot either -but one of these days.